So ISIS claims responsibility, there is more than one suspect, one suspect is in pieces, and more attacks are possible, so they are on the highest level of terror alert now.

There is also a lot of hate propaganda blooming online, the typical trolling of Americans, minorities, immigrants, and even the Muslim mayor of London is receiving death threats (he's not the mayor of Manchester..). Some early speculation is that the attack may have been timed to terrorize America and its allies in response to Trump's meeting with the Saudi King and Israel. It's still not clear how strongly the attackers were actually associated with the Islamic State, whether they were trained or locally radicalized.

This marks the second time a major American musical act has been targeted by terrorists while overseas, resulting in mass international casualties, the first being the Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris, 2015. Unsurprisingly, the Eagles of Death Metal spoke out in solidarity with Ariana Grande and her fans, and against the terror.

Jesse Hughes — co-founder of the band who told The Desert Sun he'd never do another interview about the attacks — reacted on Facebook to the situation in Manchester:

"My prayers and deepest sympathies are with Ariana Grande, her band, crew, fans and families. With so much still unknown, I hope we all resist the temptation to speculate and jump to conclusions. I've learned, if we keep love in our hearts, no darkness can Ever prevail against the Light."

1. Let others do the talking
A young person who's seriously considering committing murder in the name of Islam would never pay attention to a tweet or a video from the U.S. government, no matter how expertly crafted, Abu Hurriya and Oweidat said.
The State Department seems to agree.
"We know the U.S. government is not always the best messenger to reach out to the most vulnerable populations, a senior State Department official said. "The most effective voices to counter ISIL's narrative come from our partners in Muslim-majority countries. We will continue to build those relationships, indeed to expand them."
One of those partners is the Sawab Center, a "joint operations center for online engagement" in the United Arab Emirates, the official said, adding that the State Department is also working with the Malaysian government and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, which have announced intentions to open similar centers.
Oweidat recommended that the State Department also support individual scholars and intellectuals who have credence in the Muslim world: Californian Hamza Yusuf; Egyptian Islam al-Behery; Iraqi Ayad Jamal al-Din; Saudis Ibrahim al-Buleihi and Turki al-Hamad; and Bahrinian Dhiyaa al-Musawi.

2. Present an alternative world view
ISIS tries to sell a certain worldview to seekers in the United States: that their country hates Muslims and is actively trying to destroy Islam.
Oweidat, who grew up in Jordan, argued the U.S. government needs to lay out the truth plainly.
"They need to take apart that narrative," she said. "Muslims in America are so much better off than in the entire globe. I grew up in the Arab world and witnessed firsthand the systematic and structural silencing of those who espouse liberal values like democracy, diversity and freedom of religion.
"America is so awesome -- it shouldn't be hard to sell. People risk their lives to come here Let's tweet how the U.S. gives scholarships to Arab and Muslim students, and how the U.S. is the largest donor to Syrian refugees."
3. Don't shoot yourself in the foot
A recent tweet from the State Department's "Think Again, Turn Away" campaign, noted that Italy was sending 450 troops to Iraq.

That plays right into ISIS' hands, Abu Hurriya said.
In one of the group's videos, ISIS discusses a prophecy that 80 countries will rise up against Islam.
Pointing out that countries are sending troops to the region just seems to prove ISIS' point.
4. Step up the production values and volume
ISIS uses slick videos to sell its point of view. The United States should, too, experts said.
And the United States needs to be on social media nonstop, just like ISIS.
"Every region controlled by ISIS has its own production company, and every day they're publishing," Cohen said. "People sit around for hours tweeting and re-tweeting and sending messages all around."
The U.S. efforts aren't as prolific, he said, and not as shared, either. For example, the State Department tweet above about Italian troops was re-tweeted only eight times.

5. Attack the snake from the head
Cohen noted that the ISIS effort seems to be well-funded and led by people who know what they're doing.
"Who are the people behind this? Who are the resources? Who's giving the money for it? Who's running the IT production?" he asked. "We need to get to the minds behind it. We need to dig deeper."

So ISIS claims responsibility, there is more than one suspect, one suspect is in pieces, and more attacks are possible, so they are on the highest level of terror alert now.

There is also a lot of hate propaganda blooming online, the typical trolling of Americans, minorities, immigrants, and even the Muslim mayor of London is receiving death threats (he's not the mayor of Manchester..). Some early speculation is that the attack may have been timed to terrorize America and its allies in response to Trump's meeting with the Saudi King and Israel. It's still not clear how strongly the attackers were actually associated with the Islamic State, whether they were trained or locally radicalized.

This marks the second time a major American musical act has been targeted by terrorists while overseas, resulting in mass international casualties, the first being the Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris, 2015. Unsurprisingly, the Eagles of Death Metal spoke out in solidarity with Ariana Grande and her fans, and against the terror.

ISIS MO is to use locally radicalized individuals providing them minimal logistical support, or at least minimal traceable logistical support. Reasons being that locally radicalized people blend in much better. They aren't your middle eastern no speaky english good stand out like a sore thumb types. The rest has to do with the efficiency of Intelligence agencies in tracking communications and shutting down attacks before they happen. So utilizing lone wolves who with minimal guidance do most of their stuff on their own is currently the best stratagem. There are numerous theories as to how the little communication that occurs is occurring, but until we can take one of these guys alive probably not going to get anything definite.

This all sounds good and from an idealistic perspective like it might actually work. However, most of it is deeply flawed.

Points 1 and 2 fall into the hands of ISIS apologists who say that the foreign nations are lying to muslims to try to lull them into complacency and that muslim clerics and scholars that like western values are deceitful heretics that are trying to lead you astray. Don't take my word for it, read it in their own words in their "Why We Hate You and Why We Fight You" in their magazine(has previously been posted here on Bullshido but our lovely search function isn't returning it for me). http://clarionproject.org/factsheets...-the-cross.pdf

Point number three is a catch 22. We can do nothing and allow ISIS to take things over, and ISIS wins. We can do something, like send troops, and ISIS wins. We can do something and try to put a media black out on it, and ISIS wins. As ISIS(and pretty much any nut job radical group like the KKK and the Neo Nazi movement) seeks disaffected people who are angry and prone to see the government as the enemy, anything they government does can be twisted into a negative. Much like political parties in the US twist the actions of one another into negatives... Prime difference is that they are trying to encourage people to peacefully bring about change via voting, ISIS is trying to encourage people to do more dastardly things.

Point 4... Right because what we need is more governmentally published propaganda. That may have worked in the highly nationalistic 1930's, but those things more often than not become tropes for jokes in the modern era. "This is your brain, this is your brain on..." See my point? Also ISIS has volunteers doing all of this stuff, whereas governments would actually have to hire people to do it, and production is expensive further burdening an already strained budget.

Point 5... So when UBL was ghosted why didn't the entire world wide terror network fall apart? Sure Al Qaeda became less effective and influential, but that is only because his lieutenants went off to do their own things like ISIS. ISIS originally was "Al Qaeda in Iraq." You had Obama calling them the JV teamhttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-me...state-jv-team/

Israel has been ghosting the heads of terrorist organizations of 69 glorious years. Yet despite phone bombs, laptop bombs and other means of extremely targeted assassination of leaders of terrorist organizations none of those organizations have stopped or gone away. At best you set them back temporarily.

His heart was visible, and the dismal sack that maketh excrement of what is eaten.

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Fucking dirty ass, disgusting, goat fucking Muslims. Wiping every last motherfucking one of them off the face of the Earth is the only answer. You can all pretend we can find some middle ground, but there will be none. Kill them all.

Fucking dirty ass, disgusting, goat fucking Infidels . Wiping every last motherfucking one of them off the face of the Earth is the only answer. You can all pretend we can find some middle ground, but there will be none. Kill them all.

I change one word in your quote and you sound exactly like them, by them I mean extremist terrorist groups.
That means your position is one of ignorance and polar extremism.

Last edited by BackFistMonkey; 5/24/2017 10:27am at .

“I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.”
BILL HICKS,
1961-1994

Originally Posted by Jean Paula-Satire

Never believe that the GOP and fellow bigots are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The bigots and Republicans have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past and that besides, they have already won